One thought about Escort from Edoras: I’m still on Hunt for Gollum, and find myself playing Gandalf a lot and questing with him to power past locations in the staging area. Escort gives you the same effect for 3 fewer resources. Both allies give you 4 willpower, and both are done after one quest, so Escort actually does make a lot of sense that way. Still, he’s weak as hell.

He also has applications in the kind of quests where you want to lag on a particular stage of a quest and then power through at the push of a button. Nothing is worse than getting ready and being finally ready to leave stage 1 of conflict at the carrock only to somehow get bogged down on part 1 and lose the whole thing.

Love the show. Fellow Canuks blathering on about one of the best new games on the market, little else could be more entertaining. I’m excited for the Khazad’Dhum expansion, it sounds excellent. If you are ever looking for a western canadian’s thoughts and ideas on the game shoot me an email @ theeghostvoice@hotmail.com, and check out my podcast resume by listening to the Reckless Dice Podcast, the webs only Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3e podcast on the net.

SOMETHING FOR BRIAN:
Asked directly to FFG, and got a complete contrary response:
Can “Stand and fight” be used to return a neutral ally to play? the text (the chosen ally can be from any sphere) causes confusion.
No, a neutral card does not qualify as belonging to a sphere; therefore Stand and Fight cannot target neutral allies.

I just saw that in some of the FFG forums today. I was going to suggest we discuss it for the next episode. Do you happen to know where a link to that original post is from? For now, I think I’ll wait for an official errata notice. If they want to release one, so be it, but for now, the text on the card doesn’t seem to, in any way, negate the use of that card on a neutral ally.

It says “Choose an ally with a printed cost of X in any player’s discard plile. Put that ally into play under you control. (The chosen ally can belong to any sphere of influence.).”

I get the argument that Gandalf is an ally that does not belong to any sphere, but the card says it CAN be used from any sphere, not that it must. I’ll admit that Stand and Fight is in my deck to bring Ganny back, but until they post something official correcting the terminology of the card, I’ll keep using it dirty style!

This issue isn’t entirely clear (pending official FAQ posting), but here is essentially everything the rulebook and FAQ says about the issue.

Rulebook p. 8, “Neutral cards have a grey template and no Sphere of Influence icon.” Earlier, it mentions that a Sphere of Influence icon, “Indicates which sphere this card belongs to.” This of course clearly demonstrates that neutral cards belong to no sphere of influence.

Rulebook p. 12 also mentions, “Neutral cards… require no resource match to play,” which doesn’t seem entirely relevant, but it’s one of the only things mentioned regarding neutral cards and indicates they can be played by resources from any sphere despite not belonging to any sphere.

Stand and Fight says, “The chosen ally can belong to any sphere of influence,” though neutral cards clearly have no sphere of influence. The question, of course, is whether or not the designers meant “MUST” instead of “can” (belong to any sphere of influence).

The only thing we have to go off of in making this decision is FAQ entry 1.14, for the word “Cannot.” It says, “If a card effect uses the word ‘cannot’, then it is an absolute: that effect cannot be overridden by other effects.” It is not certain as to whether the word “can” is also an absolute, so until an official FAQ ruling, I suppose it could go either way. For the time being, my interpretation will be to go with whatever makes the game harder for the players.

I did a reread of my instruction book last night looking for these very same items. Glad to see you reached the same conclusion I did.

The only thing I would add (and I’m not even sure which side of the debate this would have me fall on) is that the text within the parentheses is entirely unnecessary if this card can be used on Gandalf, because it would otherwise be there simply to remind players that the card can be used on any ally, not just spirit allies. The text on the card (without the part in parentheses) makes it very clear it can be used on any ally. On the other hand, perhaps the parentheses were very much an intentional addition to inform players of a restriction. If that was the case, however, I feel like they would have been much sterner with the language.

Either way, it seems obvious to me that this card, whichever way it is supposed to be used, was written poorly, and the attention has been brought to FFG, so I’m sure we can expect an official clarification. Though I do hope this clarification is made not solely to exclude a helpful combination players have discovered.

I admire your style, because I use whatever I can to make the game easier if the rules don’t explicitly outlaw it (you should see how I get around the table talk rules!). Perhaps as my skill with the game grows, I’ll take your approach :)

PS: Thanks for the kind words!

13092011

TheLightdarker(13:58:22) :

Great episode! Good job contributing, Brian, you were an enjoyable addition to the show (and hopefully the small decks won’t discourage the CotR lady listeners). It does need a little more Lightdarker, though – maybe making an appearance as part of the tenth episode? ;)

New Emyn Muil preview up today, in which they “spoil” Rauros Falls (again), and a Leadership card, “Rear Guard.” Not too sure I’m feeling it, especially considering CatC and ATJR encourage players to quest very slowly and methodically (and that Emyn Muil allegedly has only 1 quest card). I’m not feeling my decks demanding any more questing ability, and I think I would much rather have pretty much anything else :P

I got a tweet about you soloing rhosgobel fairly easy and that you would talk about it in the next episode. Did that actually happen? I listened to it today at work and maybe I missed that part. Just wondering

Regarding Imrahil, he can be very useful in decks that are built to take advantage of him. While Aragorn is an easier hero to play with and build a deck around, Imrahil can be more versatile when used well. This means that Imrahil can be quite strong in a deck built around his skill, but that he is less effective when plugged into a deck that was not designed for him.

To give you an example of how I have tried using Imrahil, I constructed a Spirit/Leadership deck with Imrahil, Frodo, and Dunhere. Spirit is a very useful sphere to use with Imrahil because of some of the cards it has available. The Westfold Horsebreaker from the Hunt for Gollum is an ally I have almost never used, but is very useful with Imrahil. The Horsebreaker can be discarded from play to ready a hero, but if you are playing with Imrahil, discarding it can ready Imrahil in addition to another hero. The Escort from Edoras allows you to do some massive questing for one turn by questing Imrahil as well, who can then ready when the Escort goes on its way. This deck is one of the first I have built that involves most of its characters coming from one region of Middle Earth, specifically Rohan. The Horsebreaker, the Escort, Dunhere, Eomund, and the Snowborn Scout all fit well in this deck, thus making the event card Mustering the Rohirrim from the Hunt for Gollum expansion useful for the first time. By also utilizing the event cards Dwarven Tomb and Stand and Fight from the core set, you are able to recycle the Horsebreaker and Escort for many uses in a single game, maximizing Imrahil’s potential.

I’d say it was a successful deck. I always play 2 player, and my partner keeps her deck pretty consistent (she uses Eowyn, Eleanor, and Beravor). This deck performed just as well as many of the other combinations I’ve tried. It’s a little lighter on combat than my usual Leadership/Tactics decks, but with more Spirit, it makes questing even easier, and Dunhere with Dunedain Marks is a machine at taking out stuff in the staging area.

Great podcast – keep up the good work. Just to point out that at one point you mention playing Dunedain Warning on Escort from Edoras, which is not possible as the Dunedain cards can only be played on heroes.

I’m from Brisbane, Australia and I’ve only recently started to listen to your show. I really love it though :) I’m also a massive fan of the game and can’t wait for Khazad Dum!! I’m pretty new at card games like this. I got into MTG at the beginning of the year and now this, If you ever want a more newbie type perspective, I’d love to participate on the show…